The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)

The File on Thelma Jordan is an extremely dull unendearing film-noir.It started out fine. Thelma runs into drunken Cleve when going to report a fake burglary attempt, they hit it off. Then soon after there is the burglary and murder and it's all down hill. Cleve has a gorgeous, sweet wife played by Joan Tetzel with kids and he cheats on her with devious Thelma. Don't get it.

A gripping film-noir, directed by genre specialist Robert Siodmak. Stanwyck apart, the cast is mainly B-movie grade, but as I so often find to be the case with noir movies of this era, that doesn't matter partly because the actors concerned are so good and partly because their relative anonymity just adds to the veracity of these stories of out if the ordinary events happening to ordinary people.Stanwyck plays the femme fatale Thelma Jordon, out to hook unhappily married Assistant D.A. Wendell Corey's Cleave Marshall in her web of theft, adultery and of course, murder. Watching the movie, of course one is reminded of her star turn years before in Billy Wilder's all-time classic "Double Indemnity" and while she's perhaps a little old this time to play the scheming siren, she still convinces with a performance which covers a lot of bases as the role demands.In support, Wendell Corey perhaps lacks a little of the personality of that earlier self-deceiving patsy Fred MacMurray plus the rather heartless way he treats his loving wife and kids stops the viewer sympathising with him too much as he loses everything by the end. I did like Barry Kelley as his enthusiastic principled superior/mentor D.A. and especially Paul Kelly as his suspecting, pursuing colleague Miles Scott while Richard Rober, wearing about the most vulgar tie you'll ever see, makes for Thelma's suitably cold, controlling paramour Tony to whom she wakens up just in time for one final act of sacrificial self-redemption.Atmospherically and intelligently directed throughout, Siodmak is at home either when setting the action in the gloomy Gothic dwelling of Jordon's doomed aunt, the external city locations and especially the taut court-room scenes. By the end, as in most of the best noirs, everybody loses, except the viewer of another gritty, twisting good-quality thriller like this.

Barbara Stanwyck had some great lines during her lengthy film career, but one stands out that describes practically every character she ever played. "Maybe I am just a dame and didn't know it", she tells the D.A. (Wendell Corey) whom she has convinced of her innocence in the murder of her aged aunt (Gertrude Hoffman) and has fallen in love with in spite of being involved with a no-good jewel thief (Richard Rober). While that line here is used pretty much as a throw-away, the way Stanwyck says it makes it stick. She's obviously setting him up for further use, having discovered him drunk in his office while reporting an attempted robbery at her aunt's gloomy mansion. Thelma Jordan, like "Double Indemnity's" Phyllis Diedrickson and the titled character in "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers", is tough on the outside and just as calculating, but unlike the evil Phyllis and the doomed Martha, she has just a bit more conscience as she faces trial for murder and finds that underneath her own desires is someone who wants more than what life has given her. Yet, how can you escape what has been molded into you after years of wanting more without heading down that road towards doom that Barbara Stanwyck's film noir dames always seemed to be driving towards. Corey is married to daddy's girl Joan Tetzel, and becomes involved with Stanwyck only after realizing that his seemingly perfect domestic life bores him to bits. Wendell Corey was never one of the more exciting leading actors. He was acceptable as Joan Crawford's husband in "Harriet Craig" because it was obvious that she could cuckhold him into doing her bidding. He was also believable as Kirk Douglas's right-hand man in "Desert Fury" because there was an underlying sense of devotion with slightly obvious gay overtones. Opposite Stanwyck in "The Furies", he may have been her leading man, but was secondary to the fury between Stanwyck and her on- screen father (Walter Huston). Here, he's bland enough to be believable as the local assistant D.A., but as the subject of Stanwyck's passion, that never becomes believable.This is a film noir where characterization is the most important element of the plot, and there, it is Stanwyck's film all the way. Even though it is obvious that she went out of her way to get the crime she's accused of committed, there's also a sense of reluctance and regret which only Stanwyck could infuse into a character like this. The screenplays for "Double Indemnity" and "The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers" were excellent, but "Thelma Jordan's" is simply just average, made better by Stanwyck's presence in it. Gripping photography, editing and music also help, but somehow, it lacks in becoming the classic it could have been had more thought gone into the other characters rather than just Stanwyck and Corey's. Paul Kelly is excellent as Corey's boss, involved in political upheaval in the D.A.'s office that is not fully developed, but the way in which Kelly's character deals with the outcome shows an understanding character who must be tough and ruthless in the courtroom even though he's much more aware of human frailties through dealing with his own. The lack of screen time for the aged Hoffman as the aunt/victim doesn't develop a true motive for her murder other than robbery, unlike Judith Anderson's domineering matriarch in "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers". Hoffman, who had some great moments in the women's film prison drama, "Caged", needed at least one meaty scene to establish why a woman near death's door anyway had to be killed in such a violent way. Tetzel's wife and mother to Corey is too good to be true, especially when she learns of her husband's infidelity. This had the potential to become a film noir classic, but is missing the one key ingredient that completes it on its psychological journey. Still, it's a missed opportunity that should not be missed for film noir fans and for Stanwyck aficionados like myself.

The combination of an unhappy man with an ambitious woman is a formula for disaster, as we have seen in a lot of film noir offerings. In this story, Cleve Marshall, and assistant D.A., proves to be the perfect target for what a scheming lady like Thelma Jordon has in mind. From the start, Thelma is too happy to oblige the interest and the passion she incites in Cleve.Marshall is a married man whose wife, Pamela, a society girl, is deeply involved with her parents in social events that are deeply resented by the down to earth Cleve. He drowns his sorrows in drink, something that Thelma knows will help her bring him to her side, although she has other things in mind. When the affair begins in earnest, Thelma gets involved in the murder of her old aunt. Cleve, who has been indiscreet with his phone calls to the old woman's residence, is summoned to help Thelma who stands a good chance to get the maximum death sentence for all the evidence points in her direction. Cleve, who gets the assignment to prosecute Thelma, doesn't know what he is really getting into.This 1950 Paramount release has not been seen much lately. As someone else pointed out, it used to turn a lot in the days of early television. The film is worth a look because Robert Siodmak's direction. Mr. Siodmak, who had worked in his native Germany and in France, had a great eye for detail, as he shows in this story.Barbara Stanwyck was the perfect actress to portray Thelma. She had been successful in other films that involved ambitious women with no scruples. Ms. Stanwyck always gave impressive readings to the characters she played, which is the case of her Thelma. Wendell Corey, another excellent actor, has the sad task to play the man who throws everything away because he is blinded by the intensity of his feelings for an unworthy woman.The supporting cast does wonders to help the film. Best of all is Stanley Ridges who plays Thelma's attorney. Paul Kelly, another good character actor appears as Cleve's boss. Joan Tetzel and Richard Lober also appear in minor roles.The film will not disappoint fans of this genre.